


Christmas Eve, 1980 - James and Lily

by CreativeWords



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-25
Updated: 2014-12-25
Packaged: 2018-03-03 12:06:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2850266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CreativeWords/pseuds/CreativeWords





	Christmas Eve, 1980 - James and Lily

“So Mrs. Fenwick brought the milk this morning and asked if they’d see us in church tonight. Candlelight service.”

James poked at his eggs and made a noncommittal sound in the back of his throat. His hair stuck up at all angles, which it usually did, but was this morning, paired with his rumpled pyjamas and general sour demeanour, insufferable.

“I thought maybe if we arrived late and left early… I told her it would depend on Harry’s naptime.”

“Hmm.”

“And also on the attitude of the other baby in this house.”

Lily waited for the words to sink in. It took approximately three chews for his eyes to fly up to meet hers.

“What?”

“Don’t deny it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I’m talking about the fact that my 20 year old husband has been pouting more than my six month old son for the last three weeks.”

James scooped two beans onto his spoon and held it out to Harry, who was cooing quite contentedly in his chair. “I have not been pouting.”

Lily snorted. “Even Peter said so.”

“Wormtail should keep his mouth shut. Why Dumbledore ever thought that he’d be useful as –“

“ _James_.”

“Well, it’s true. The boy nearly gave away Remus at Hogwarts more times than I can count. I actually had to Obliviate Darien Diggory in our 6th year –“

“He is one of your dearest friends, and I won’t have you speaking this way about him because you’ve got cabin fever.”

“I should be out there fighting, not Peter. Do you think he’s of more use than I would be?”

“I think you wouldn’t last more than three days outside of this house, and I’d be a widow with a son who is still being hunted by Voldemort. So yes, I think Peter is of more use to the Order than you. And I’ve heard all I will against him. He deserves better than that from you.”

“What you’re really saying is that _you_ deserve better than that from me.”

“Your words.”

Harry whimpered, looking up at James’ thunderous face with something like fear. James made an effort to clear the scowl from his face and replace it with a smile. Lily slammed down her fork and stood to reach for him. “You’re scaring him. I’ll take him and finish feeding him.”

“Was I not just doing that?”

“No, you were complaining about the fact that you can’t be off having adventures because you need to protect him. Very noble of you.”

“You’re being absurd.”

“ _I’m_ being absurd?” Lily drew in a breath, bouncing Harry gently on her hip. “Well, perhaps I am. In case you’ve forgotten, James, this isn’t exactly how I’d planned on spending my days, either. But here we are.”

She didn’t wait for a reply, but gathered Harry’s bowl of cereal and stacked it on her own half-empty plate and carried them back into the kitchen. The swinging door didn’t provide the option of slamming it behind her, but she imagined doing so with more gusto than perhaps she ought to have done. She settled Harry on the counter and spooned cereal into his open mouth.

“It’s not that your dad doesn’t care about you, you know,” she told him as he gummed at the white stuff. “It’s just that he’s the kind who can’t bear to be idle. If he could go out with a sword and kill all the people who want to hurt you, he’d do it in a heartbeat.”

Harry’s head bobbed as if he was nodding, but his eyes were on the spoon she was drawing through the bowl. She raised another to his lips.

“But we can’t do that. And he would be in terrible danger if he tried. He truly would.” Another spoonful. Lily cupped Harry’s curls in her left hand as she steadied him for the bite, ashamed of the lump that was growing in her throat. “And then where would we be, Harry? Hm? Not that he thinks of that. Losing Daddy to the Dark Lord would be just as terrible as losing you, wouldn’t it?” The tear streaked down her face without permission, followed by several of its mates. “Wouldn’t it?”

She hadn’t heard James come in, but she felt his arms slide around her from behind. She reached up to wipe away the tears, but his hand followed, curling around her brushing fingers and drawing them up to kiss. His stubbly cheek came to rest against hers.

“I’m a sodding idiot.”

She allowed a fleeting smile. “Your words.”

∞∞∞∞∞

They’d managed to get both Potter men fed, washed, and dressed, and were in the midst of a rousing game of peek-a-boo when there was a knock at the door. So few people had been brought inside the Fidelius that any noise at the door that wasn’t expected was cause for concern. Lily gathered Harry in the crook of her left arm and situated her wand in her right hand. James motioned them out of the line of sight of the door.

 _“Hominum Revelio,”_ he muttered. His wand vibrated in his hand in staccato bursts – six times. Three unknowns on the other side of the door. He held up his fingers for Lily to see.

The knock came again, heavier and angrier. James came closer, body coiled for attack.

“Oi, Prongs! D’you think you could let us in before we turn into icicles out here?”

It was Sirius’ impatient shout, and Lily had never been so pleased to hear it. James bounded to the door and threw it open to greet his friends. They scurried in, shivering the snow off their clothing as they crossed the threshold.

“Did you truly expect a Death Eater to knock so politely?” Sirius demanded, cuffing James on the side of the head.

James responded in kind, but Sirius dodged. “No, but I didn’t really expect that of you, either, Padfoot.”

“Well, Remus made me.”

“I thought it might make you less panicky. My mistake,” Remus said dryly, clasping James’ hand.

“You should know that James is spoiling for a fight by now.” Peter said. “I was expecting booby traps by the door.”

“If I let him start that, all of the Hollow would have gone up in flames weeks ago,” Lily said, passing Harry into Sirius’ eager arms. “I’ve already had to keep him from setting hexes on the neighbor’s lawn decorations. Don’t encourage him further.”

“Don’t blame you there, James,” Peter said as they all moved from the entry way back into the sitting room. He nodded out the window. “Bit garish, that. Positively American.”

The display in question involved crimson and silver balls hung on the trees in the yard and enchanted to arrange themselves into messages as people passed. “Happy Christmas,” “SNOW!” “Season’s Greetings,” and “Support Centaur Regulation” danced from various limbs whenever a person walked near the fence. That in itself might have been endurable were it not for the fairy lights who for the most part merely frosted the trees, but occasionally turned themselves into a blinking blizzard of lights when arguments broke out amongst them.

“Oh, don’t be fooled,” Remus said. He plucked Harry from Sirius’ arms over his friend's objections. “James is only upset because he can’t try and out-do them.”

“Christmas decorations are a bit hard to come by when in deep hiding,” James replied from his position on the sofa, arm around Lily, his voice a forced level of calm.

He sent a meaningful glance around the room. The tree had been taken from the property and stood a scant six feet, sparsely decorated with clearly homemade ornaments, many of them various kitchen implements that had been transfigured to look gilded or crimson. The mantel boasted a half-hearted garland of pine and a thin red ribbon Lily had enchanted to that shade from pale blue from their baby shower presents. The charm had begun to fade at the ends.

“You could easily have sent one of us round to your flat, you know,” Remus countered, still striding about with Harry.

Sirius had given up and thrown himself into the armchair closest to the fire. “Just because _you_ can’t be seen in London doesn’t mean that one of us couldn’t have gotten your things.”

“Dumbledore borrowed my cloak or I would have lent it for just such an excursion. Might have come along myself,” James sighed.

“Because a few baubles are clearly worth our friends risking their necks,” Lily said with the kind of icy sarcasm that never failed to put all four of them into an uneasy silence.

Peter shook his head as Remus offered Harry to him, opting instead for a quick tickle and hair muss. “Glad you mentioned the cloak, James, because we’ve been thinking –“

Sirius drew himself up and cut Peter off. “We realized that of course you can’t show your faces in Diagon Alley. And as much as we would have loved playing Father Christmas’ helpers, neither of you seemed particularly anxious to avail yourselves of three quite capable errand boys. We’re not so thick we couldn’t see it was out of concern for our safety,” he nodded toward Lily’s moderately frowning face. “So we thought, ‘how could we get our dear Potters some Christmas cheer of the sort that wouldn’t send Lily into a thundercloud?’”

Peter drew a flask out of his shirt pocket and flicked his wand to send it to James. “Polyjuice potion.”

“And that’s not the end of it,” Remus said hurriedly, before Lily could object. “We’ve collected hairs from two muggles who frequent the bookshop down the street from the Leaky Cauldron. We’ve also taken the liberty of taking some gold out of your account, James, and exchanging it for pounds.”

“Pounds? Muggle money?” James asked.

“Yes. We’re taking you shopping in London proper.” Sirius announced.

∞∞∞∞∞

It took another half hour to explain everything to Lily’s satisfaction. One of them would stay in the house with Harry – two, if Lily preferred. There were three doses each of the Polyjuice, so they would have just about three hours. None of them was exactly sure of the exchange rate, but going by the wad of bills in Sirius’ hand, they thought the Potters could find enough to make it seem more like Christmas.

Lily was actually more thrilled by the prospect than James. It had been years since she’d gone Christmas shopping outside of the Wizarding shops, and while the Muggles couldn’t hold a candle in inventiveness, there was something pleasing about the sheer crush of holiday merrymakers that Diagon Alley did not achieve. Leaving Harry somewhere safe was also a key component. James began to try to convince her to bring him along, but it had taken less than a minute to see that she would not budge.

The hardest part had been deciding who would stay with Harry, and who would shadow them in case of trouble. Peter seemed the best choice for a shadow, as he was less likely to cause a scene than Sirius and not as comfortable with babies as either Sirius or Remus.By the time Lily and James were ready to take the Polyjuice, Remus and Sirius were still arguing over who would stay with Harry.

“All I’m saying is that Remus has a Muggle mother. It’d be no trouble for him to fit in at all,” Sirius called through the closed door to James and Lily’s bedroom where Lily was taking the potion and changing into the clothes they’d provided. “And I _am_ Harry’s godfather. That has to count in my favor.”

“And yet I’m the one who thought to feed him while you were busy trumpeting your rights,” Remus said quietly, passing another bit of biscuit to Harry, who cooed in gratitude.

“Yes, but I change his diaper faster.”

“Because you do it wrong.”

“And you know that how? Do you have some sort of sideline nannying job you’ve never disclosed?”

“No, I know it because I paid attention when Lily showed us.”

“Brownnoser.”

“Layabout.”

“Boys!”

Both Remus and Sirius jumped, for the voice that emanated from the other side of the door was nothing like the tones they were accustomed to hearing from Lily. Her voice had jumped half an octave and no longer carried the warm alto quality that distinguished it. And when she threw open the door and reached for Harry, it was hard to say who was more startled – Harry or the men who held him. Lily had shrunk about three inches in height and expanded considerably more in the torso. The clothing they had procured for her was a least a decade old and looked as if it might have been out of favor then – a truly horrendous floral skirt and heavy overcoat that was serviceable but remarkably rectangular. Her ginger hair had turned chestnut, streaked with silver, and her face had amassed a surprising number of wrinkles.

She arched an eyebrow that was strangely familiar, despite the sparseness of the hairs on her brow. “Don’t stare. You’re the ones who got the hairs. It was going to happen one day, anyway. Besides, you should see James.”

Remus surrendered Harry willingly, though the child was less willing to go, and both he and Sirius dashed into the bedroom, already half-hooting with laughter. Lily shook her head and promenaded in front of Peter, who was at the window, engrossed in the neighbor’s display. Harry was still unsure of the woman holding him and kept squirming toward Peter.

“You’d better take him – what _are_ you doing?” Lily asked as Peter traced a complicated hexagonal pattern with his wand.

The fairies across the street left their trees and formed into a large hand making a rude gesture at the old lady who was walking past. They could hear her outraged exclamation from inside. Despite herself, Lily snorted.

“I just thought their decorations needed a little boost is all,” Peter said, reaching for Harry with a visible degree of hesitance.

“You ought to put it back. Or at least give them a few other formations.”

“Any suggestions?”

Lily pursed her lips, then reached for her wand. A moment later, the ornaments had flown to join the lights in a portrait of the giant squid wearing a Santa hat and waving. Harry clapped his hands appreciatively and threw himself toward the window. Peter made a frantic grab at him, releasing a squeak of pure anxiety as Harry took to the new game, pitching his head floorward a second time.

“Why is it you’re allowed play but I’m not?” The foghorn voice of a chain smoker came from the bedroom door.

The trio by the window turned to see Remus, Sirius, and who could only James, though he had aged even more than Lily and now sported a shiny bald pate and eyebrows as bushy as Lily’s were sparse.

“Because I’m the responsible one,” she retorted, coming over to rub the spot where James’ hair usually stuck out.

“I would be more offended if I could argue with any degree of honesty.”

“I’m glad you recognize that fact.”

James grinned and stooped to kiss, but she ducked away.

“I don’t kiss strange men, thank you very much.”

She danced a few paces back, grinning at him, but he looked utterly deflated. Maybe it was the old rough overcoat that had belonged to Remus’ muggle uncle, or the crow’s feet that added such pathos to his face, but she could scarcely bear the dejected figure he cut. She stepped closer and planted a kiss on his cheek.

“Remus, Sirius, have we decided who is babysitting?”

“I thought it’d be better if they both stay. Peter will be protection enough for us, and I don’t think we need help drawing attention to ourselves out there,” James said, shrugging.

Lily returned the gesture. “Fair enough. Boys, try not to tear down the house or turn Harry into chipmunk while we’re gone, won’t you? Peter, let’s be off.”

Peter was only too glad to pass the baby back into Sirius’ impatient hands and head toward the door. Lily and James pressed kisses to Harry’s head and followed.

Sirius shouted after them. “So is it only a chipmunk that’s off-limits?”

∞∞∞∞∞

The streets were teeming with shoppers and merrymakers. There was a pleasant cacophony to the air, born of laughter and snatches of carols from all directions and a gentle but insistent undercurrent of bells. Lily would have given a considerable amount for them to have taken this trip in their true bodies so she could see James’ eyes sparkling with the childlike excitement his current form couldn’t quite translate. It had never occurred to her that anything in the muggle world could be considered novel or exciting to someone who had grown up with magic, but James was truly entranced.

They drew more than their fair share of stares, but it didn’t take long for it to simply not matter to either of them. They were out of the house, they were together, and they were able to celebrate Christmas as they’d hoped. They found a collection of woodland creature ornaments in Harrods and emptied several shelves of deer, wolves, and mice, which were as close as they could expect to get to rats. Shop girls at three separate toy stores stared at the apparently homeless couple on the downhill side of middle age piling infant toys on their counters and reaching into tattered pockets to pay from thick bankrolls. Peter played messenger, collecting the bags from the various stores and finding a corner from which to Apparate back to Godric’s Hollow to deliver the packages.

Lily was running a thick purple pashmina through her fingers and weighing the advisability of purchasing it for Petunia when a sparkling snowflake descended into her field of vision, dangling on a delicate silver chain. She looked up to see James’ lined face grinning down at her. His free arm found its way around her waist.

“Like it?”

“Yes, but James –“

“Good, because I already bought it.”

“I don’t need it.”

“Necessity is against the spirit of Christmas, Lil.”

She relaxed against him, feeling the first involuntary smile of the season spread across her face. They stood in silence, ignoring the crush around them, for several heartbeats. Then James spoke.

“We should do this again next year. With Harry.”

“Do you want to chase down a toddler in a store this size?”

“It’d be worth it.”

“Without magic?”

She felt rather than saw his reaction to the concept. The laugh bubbling up in her chest was as heady as wine.

“Speaking of Harry,” James said reluctantly, “we should be getting back to him.”

As if summoned by the words, Peter jogged up to them, looking slightly wind-blown.

“Any more packages?” he wheezed.

“No, I think we’ve done our share to empty the stores,” Lily said, laughing again. “We’re ready to go home. There’s a candlelight service we might attend.”

“I… wouldn’t plan on leaving the house again today, Lily,” Peter said, backing up slightly.

Lily cast a suspicious glance at James, who attempted to run his fingers through his non-existent hair in a gesture of confusion. “Why?”

Peter grimaced. “Well, Sirius saw that Harry liked what we did with the decorations across the street, you see, and… it’d be best if you didn’t give your neighbors a chance to see you tonight.”

“What did he do?” James asked before Lily could, his tone much more inquisitive and less alarmed than hers would have been.

“Well, it’d be easier to see than – it’s just that Harry thinks it’s great fun if the fairies start snowball fights, you see, so Sirius Confunded the fellow who lives in the house and the poor fellow has been out there at least an hour, fighting off the little beasties.”

There was a shout of laughter that belonged to James, despite the foghorn voice in which it came. Lily elbowed him in the ribs, but couldn’t resist a final chuckle herself.

“Alright, you win. Next year we’ll bring Harry along.”


End file.
